Odyssey

by Jack McDevitt

Ace, 407 pp, $24.95

Odyssey is a stand alone novel by the author of Chindi and Omega.

Space has not been profitable. The Academy, [read: NASA in the future] is under budgetary fire and looking at major cutbacks that will cripple it. The long-ignored greenhouse effect is taking its toll on Earth. And mitigation takes money. In an effort to revive public interest in the program, a mission is sent to find out about the moonriders, strange lights seen in a nearby system. Along for the ride are Gregory McAllister, famed journalist against the program, the Academy’s public relations director, and the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Senator who wants the program to be shut down. But along the Blur Route, is the tourist Path for Orion Tours. The moon riders have made no attempt to communicate with any ship but appear to be harmless. Then the Orion resort under construction is destroyed and they appear to be targeting an occupied planet. The mission to spot moonriders has more significance when aliens give a warning about a scientific program that can tear a hole in space/time and destroy the universe and gives a deadline to stop. It is given to a teenager who is ignored. When the academy goes, one ship, out there as the academy finds the threat of the project to the universe is possible. The scientist won’t believe till the collider towers are destroyed. Academy flight director is scrambling every ship she can find to rescue the scientists. Can they get there in time? And whose agenda is this anyway?

Well written, with shades of Arthur C. Clark. It is a winner. One that every hard SCI FI reader will want. It suggests a future in space politics that is all too apparent. One to buy - Pam Allan